In the past, the Federal Reserve would make big announcements about the future of the economy, and banks, investors, and even regular lenders would scramble to react, often making your car loans, mortgages, and credit card rates more expensive in the process. Warsh is now saying the Fed should watch what’s actually happening in the real world before making decisions, rather than steering markets with predictions. For you, this could mean fewer wild swings in interest rates that make it harder to afford a home or pay down debt.

For a long time, the people in charge of America’s money supply believed that if too many people had jobs, prices would automatically go up, so they would deliberately slow down the economy to keep workers from having too much power. New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is breaking from this thinking, arguing that a strong economy, affordable prices, and plenty of jobs can all exist at the same time. Think of it this way: the old rule was like a doctor who kept you just sick enough so you wouldn’t “overdo it”, and Warsh just threw that rulebook out.